Founders' Journey - Episode 1
Sharing the story of a founder in the web3, data, tech space
Welcome to "Founder's Journey: Charting the Course of Tech Innovation"! This weekly newsletter published every Friday afternoon (AEST) is dedicated to providing valuable insights and strategies from my experiences working across web3, data and technology. Each issue will take you behind the scenes of the startup world, giving you a glimpse into the daily life of a tech founder and the unique challenges they face. From navigating the ever-changing landscape of web3 and blockchain technology to leveraging data analytics to drive business growth, to what are the best ways to use ChatGPT and AI, this newsletter will provide you with an insight into what I’m seeing week to week and perhaps even give you the knowledge and inspiration you need to chart your own course in the tech industry.
Whether you're a seasoned founder or just starting out, this newsletter will give you a deeper understanding of what it takes to succeed in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving tech landscape. So join us on this journey and let's chart the course of tech innovation together!
This newsletter will also highlight the type of things that I’ve found interesting to read, watch or listen and will often point to a lot of other content I already write about.
So welcome to Edition 1 in what will be an experiment in sharing (sometimes oversharing), collaboration and even learning about the world of a tech founder (me). This is going to include the ups, the downs and the side-to-sides.
I also see this as a self-serving endeavour too as it acts as a diary for me so that when I get to the end of the year, I can look back and see what the heck went on. Who knows, I might even be able to do some sort of sentiment analysis over the period and see whether or not there were more ups or downs over the year.
What happened at work
We had some more preparation for our official move into Stone & Chalk next week. If you missed it, we have a deal where Aus DeFi Association is partnering with them to create a brand new Web3 Innovation Centre (https://www.stoneandchalk.com.au/media-centre/australia-first-web3-innovation-centre/)
It’s going to be exciting getting to work amongst other builders in the web3 space, that’s for sure so if you’re interested in joining us, get in touch!
At Aus DeFi, we also put out a forecasting competition (this morning). It’s inspired by a quant friend Adam Braff who runs an annual forecasting competition each year too. Though it’d be a good idea for us too - check out the Tweet threads here (the announcement -
and the actual competition - https://forms.gle/AbgpiG8HA9GbbVqo9)
Back to it and earlier in the week, we had to put out something not so nice when we saw another set of scams hit the local market. This just drove home the thesis that what we’re building with TradeFlows (a transparent payment protocol harnessing blockchain tech) is absolutely necessary. To read my rant/tweet thread see here
Also got to put a year in review for Australian ETFs. I analysed this data with my partners as well in an app called ETFtracker and put out a blog on both the NotCentralised blog (https://medium.com/notcentralised/aussie-etf-2022-year-in-review-90e8fa9172e5) and ETFtracker’s blog (https://www.etftracker.com.au/post/aussie-etfs-2022-year-in-review).
What made interesting watching, reading, listening
Here’s a look at things I found interesting this week.
First up here’s this video about Palantir and how it is pioneering AI usage.
And further on this, how the power in an AI future the power is going to be in finding, transforming and curating data
More on AI here with this great video from Garry Tan of Y Combinator.
I summarised some of the key takeaways here in this Twitter thread
For those in the Startup/VC space, I found a new podcast I’m subscribing to called My First Million. This video had a bunch of college students discuss their app ideas and it was brilliant. Not just what the students shared, but also what the hosts gave in feedback.
and finally (for videos) I also try to watch The Compound regularly. It's a great podcast for anyone interested in the markets
For the readers, I got to feature in this piece on the Binance / Voyager buyout, offering some opinions on how this is a reminder of the strength of DeFi protocols https://thedefiant.io/binance-voyager-deal-approval
I was also able to provide comments for a few other pieces from The Chainsaw on bull-bear markets and price action https://thechainsaw.com/defi/crypto/is-the-crypto-bull-market-back/ and also this piece on DeFi 101 https://thechainsaw.com/business/what-is-decentralised-finance-a-101-on-defi-infrastructure/
Podcasts to listen to this week include the Aus DeFi back catalog of community podcasts. You can check them out here
or on the Aus DeFi website https://www.defi.org.au/our-podcast
About me
I’m Mark, an experienced data, finance and technology advocate with a current hunger for blockchain technology. I’ve worked at startups and investment banks focusing on macroeconomic and equity research and anything where I could turn raw data into powerful insights. I’ve created ETFtracker, an ETF analysis product and a number of other analysis tools (see examples here https://www.notcentralised.com/analytics). I’ve worked on data analytics at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and served as the Head of Data Analytics and Technology at Prosperity Advisers. Currently, I’m the Director/co-founder of NotCentralised, a venture studio focused on enabling web3 businesses. I also co-founded the Aus DeFi Association, a web3 advocacy group and community.